The Department is the only department of the Faculty of Fine Arts providing instruction for music and art degree programmes. It has three internal sub-departments: the Department of the Theory and History of Musical Art, the Department of the Theory and History of Visual Arts, and the Department of General Studies and Language Instruction.

The shared goal of the entire Department is:

• to provide instruction of mandatory and optional courses in subjects related to theory, art history, general knowledge and selected languages for students of the degree programmes Musical Art and Visual Arts;
• to broaden and make more attractive the current selection of theoretical subjects, based on the teaching qualification and professional specialization of the Department's teachers, so that the subjects offered are of interest to students of the Faculty of Fine Arts as well as to those of other faculties of the University of Ostrava.

Among the specific tasks of the Department's academic staff are:

• active research and publication work, participation in research projects and conferences by research-oriented members of the Department;
• active artistic and publication activities (for instance by composers), participation in creative projects by artistically oriented members of the Department;
• curator work, organization of exhibitions and art history field trips, cycles of special lectures on art history-related topics, etc.;
• cooperation with similarly oriented colleges and other partners in the Czech Republic and abroad.